ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5843

RTT - Education, training, advanced practice and role developments

ESTRO 2024

Material/Methods:

The idea for an iCoP was originally proposed in 2018 in response to the overwhelming success of the Leading The Way in Radiotherapy Advanced Practice (LTWRAP) Conference in Toronto 2018. While there was interest, the initiative was delayed. In 2020, a new invitation email was sent to all attendees of the 2018 LTWRAP Meeting (with permission of the LTWRAP organizing committee) as well as all personal contacts of the co-authors to announce the re-ignition of this initiative, to gauge interest and to ask willing recipients to declare their interest and to circulate the invitation where appropriate.

Results:

The inaugural iCoP meeting was held via Zoom on September 24, 2021 with 13 participants from five countries. At the first meeting, Terms of Reference was approved and a structure for the committee was established including appointing a lead from each country to act as a liaison for members from that jurisdiction. The first two initiatives were identified (perceptions of (ARPT) roles and measuring APRT workload) and working groups were formed. A third working group, analysis of job descriptions, has since been formed, and a fourth working group to address challenges to global radiotherapy access is under development. An iCoP instance was created on a virtual communication platform for group communication and file storage and exchange. A group email and social media accounts have also been established for communication. Six quarterly virtual meetings and six working group meetings have taken place, in addition to an in-person meeting held at the European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ESTRO) 2023 conference. Virtual meetings are recorded and recordings are posted to the MS Teams site to permit review of meeting for members unable to attend. Initiatives generated to date through the iCoP include 1/ a Delphi study to analyze the transferability of a Canadian built workload measurement tool to other countries (with $5000 in grant funding); 2/ an environmental scan of existing advanced practice education and training models to create a training model for North America ($50,000 grant secured); and 3/ a thematic analysis of existing international job descriptions. A podcast series has been launched, delivering semi-annual presentations on topics related to APRT, with two held to date. A formal partnership has also been established with the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT), with discussion underway to incorporate the iCoP into its organization structure and to build an advisory panel, with representation from the professional associations to which iCoP members belong.

Membership in the iCoP has grown to 52 members from 14 countries.

Conclusion:

To date, it is clear that the iCoP has served as a springboard for a variety of international projects, and is continuing to grow. As work continues, the iCoP will serve to improve global understanding of APRT, its promise, and build on how APRT can be used strategically to increase global APRT uptake and deployment to improve access to radiotherapy.

Keywords: advanced practice, radiation therapy